List of character statistics

The following is a list of measurable statistics for playable characters which may be found throughout the Dragon Quest series. Other than normal level progression, there are seeds that can change this before then.

Hit Points (HP) determine how much health a character has remaining. All damage subtracts from this score, and if it reaches 0, the character can no longer participate in battle, and must be revived. HP can be restored via medicinal herbs, healing spells, resting at an inn, etc.

In Dragon Quest III and IV, Resilience directly determines your character's maximum Hit Points. The more a character's Resilience score increases upon leveling, the more Hit Points a character will receive upon the next level increase.
In all other titles the maximum HP a character has is generally determined by their level and, if applicable, vocation. Martial artists, warriors, and paladins have the highest HP on average.

Any character can consume a seed of life to increase their maximum HP.

Magic Points (MP) determine how much mana a character can expend to cast spells. Each spell deducts from this pool at a set rate, and cannot be cast if MP is too low. Some very special spells like Magic Burst will consume all remaining MP when cast. Starting with Dragon Quest VI, skills were introduced that also consumed MP.

In Dragon Quest III, and the NES version of Dragon Quest IV Wisdom directly determines your character's maximum Magic Points, paralleling the Resilience stat. In all other titles the maximum MP a character has is determined by their level and, if applicable, vocation. Prior to Dragon Quest VI, non-magical characters had no MP pools as they had no use for them, but with the addition of skills, most characters began accumulating an MP pool even if they never learned actual spells.

Any character can consume a seed of magic to increase their maximum MP.

Strength measures how physically strong a character is, and is added to a character's weapon bonus in determining damage inflicted upon an enemy. In later installments, some skills depend on Strength for determining damage output, ignoring if a weapon is equipped.

Agility determines a character's priority in turns, utilizing a Gaussian Curve. Additionally, in Dragon Quest VI, Dragon Quest VII, and Dragon Quest VIII a character's agility will also determine their probability to dodge physical strikes. The game's programming checks the agility stat of the target before an attack is made, and if the stat surpasses a certain value then the programming checks to see if the blow lands:

If a character's agility is below 400, evasion is calculated as {(Agility/80)+3}/192 for a cap of 1/24 at 400. Once a character's agility surpasses 400, evasion is calculated as ([{(Agility-400)*6}/25]+8)/192 for a maximum doge rate of 1/6 at 500. In other words, the evade chances are:

Agility

Chance to evade

1

1.56%

50

1.89%

100

2.21%

200

2.86%

300

3.52%

400

4.17%

401

4.29%

425

7.29%

450

10.42%

475

13.54%

500

16.67%

Factors such as vocation bonuses and the effects of spells and skill also influence dodge rates.

Note: if a character has raised his or her Fisticuffs level to receive an increase in evasion, the default is raised to 50% before stacking with all other bonuses. The character's level must be higher than the attacking enemy's for the boost to take effect.

As can be inferred, the spell acceleratle is vitally important when battling strong foes, even slower ones.
In the NES versions of the first four games, as well as all versions of Dragon Quest III, agility also contributes to the character's innate defence. If a character has no armour or other defensive gear equipped in these titles, then their defence will be half (50%) of their agility.

Resilience (formerly localized as Vitality) measures how durable a character is. Resilience is added to a character's equipment defense in determining how much physical damage they endure when struck.
In all versions of Dragon Quest III and the NES & PSX versions of IV , Resilience determines a character's potential Hit Points. The maximum Hit Points at any time is between 195~205% of the character's Resilience score.

Wisdom (formerly localized as Intelligence) measures a character's natural cognitive ability. In III & IV Wisdom determines a character's potential Magic Points, with the maximum at any time being 195~205% of the Wisdom stat. Additionally, the stat determined how quickly a character could learn a new spell: learning a spell could be delayed or expedited by up to five levels. This aspect was reduced in subsequent versions of the two games, with the influence being three levels at most.

Beginning with Dragon Quest VI wisdom decides how intelligently an A.I. controlled character will act in battle and how they react to player actions. This lucidity stacks on top of the behavioral patters set by the various battle commands such as Watch My Back and Show No Mercy, and as such even melee characters benefit from being bright.

Wisdom

Behavior

1~10

Attacks are unfocused and random.

21~30

Effects of weapons are taken into consideration. Focus is on weaker enemies, starting from left to right.

31~40

Focus is on the weakest enemy period, ignoring previous left to right sorting method.

41~60

Damaged enemies within a group will generally be ignored if an enemy outside the group can be defeated in a single move.

61~70

Characters will always focus on the healthiest enemy in a group.

71~100

Characters begin to target the most dangerous enemy in an encounter, rather than the weakest.

101~200

Characters begin to take player action into account, altering their strategy 1/8th of the time. This acknowledgement overrides normal A.I. decision making, even if the player's action is the least intelligent choice for that turn (I.E. if the player casts oomph on the weakling magus, the magus will attack instead of casting a powerful spell).

201~300

Player recognition raised to 1/4th.

301~500

Player recognition risen to 1/3rd.

In games where Wisdom is not present, the character's level controls their A.I. efficiency.

Starting with Dragon Quest VIII, however, Wisdom has also begun to effect the potency and power of spells, such as raising Frizz's power from 10~13 to 21~24 at higher values. Each spell has it's own growth rate, with some taking up to five points of wisdom to increase in damage, and others as few as two.

Any character can consume a seed of wisdom to increase this attribute.

In all versions of Dragon Quest III and Dragon Quest IV, Luck affects your character's chances of being affected by status ailments such as Snooze, Fizzle, and Dazzle. Each enemy spell has a different base accuracy that is lowered as the stat rises, being calculated as A = ( ( MOD * [ ( 768 - 2 * LUCK ) / 2 ] ) / 256 ).
If A <= 0...255 the status effect will fail. and if A > 0...255 then the status effect is successful.

Style is the predecessor of the Charm attribute to be found in later games, and as such it describes a character's innate charisma and attractiveness. Style determines a character's placement in the contests such as the World Style Ranking in Dragon Quest VI and Dragon Quest VII.

A common misconception is that style influences the Luminary vocation's ability to stun monsters. This is false, as the stun chance is based on the character's ranking in the vocation rather than any stat.

Deftness measures the ability of a character to steal an item from an enemy, as well as controlling how frequently a character may perform a critical hit, performing preemptive strikes on enemies, and the ability to escape from battle. It should be noted that the Luck statistic is not present in games that feature Deftness.

Charm is a measurement of a character's attractiveness. Introduced in Dragon Quest IX, it is added to a character's equipment style rating in determining how often they may enthrall a monster. Enraptured foes have a 95% chance to be stunned for 1~2 turns, and a 5% chance to become paralyzed.

Magical Mending determines how powerful a character's healing spells will be. Introduced in Dragon Quest IX, it is calculated in all healing spells, as well as certain offensive skills and spells such as Solar Flair and the Whack line.

Magical Might determines how powerful a character's attack spells will be. Introduced in Dragon Quest IX, it is calculated in all offensive magical spells, as well as magical skills such as Gigaslash, and as part of the accuracy of status spells such as fizzle.

Defense is the sum of a character's Resilience and Armour equipped, if any, checked against the enemy's Attack in calculations for damage. One-fourth (25%) is checked against half the assailant's Attack stat. It has no effect on magical or breath damage, which are dependent on spells/skills and equipment traits.

In the NES titles, Defense is the sum of half a character's Agility and the sum of their armor's durability.